Midco facts for kids
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Formerly
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Midcontinent Communications |
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| Joint venture | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1931, in Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Headquarters | Sioux Falls, South Dakota |
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Area served
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Minnesota North Dakota South Dakota Wisconsin Northeast Kansas |
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Key people
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Pat McAdaragh (CEO) |
| Products |
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| Owners |
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Midco is a company that provides TV, internet, and phone services. It used to be called Midcontinent Communications until 2016. Midco serves homes and businesses in North Dakota, South Dakota, much of Minnesota, and some areas in Kansas and Wisconsin. They also offer special fiber-optic services for larger companies.
Midco's main office is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It's a partnership between Midcontinent Media and Comcast. Midco reaches over 200 towns and cities, serving more than 1.2 million people.
Contents
Midco's Story
How Midco Started
Midcontinent Media began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1931. Back then, it was called the Welworth Theater Company. It owned and ran movie theaters. The company stayed in the movie business until the 1990s. Then, it sold its theaters to other companies.
In 1952, the company bought Midcontinent Broadcasting Company. This company owned radio stations KELO-AM and FM in Sioux Falls. After this, the company changed its name to Midcontinent Media. They also helped start South Dakota's first TV station, KELO-TV, which began broadcasting in 1953. Midcontinent bought more radio and TV stations over the years. However, they started selling off their broadcasting businesses in the 1990s. They sold their last radio stations in 2004.
Growing Their Services
Midco began offering phone and cable TV services in the 1960s. They focused on rural areas in the Upper Midwest. In 1999, Midcontinent Media teamed up with AT&T Broadband. They combined their cable services in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Nebraska. This new partnership was called Midcontinent Communications. The partnership continued even after Comcast bought AT&T Broadband.
In 2008, Midcontinent Communications bought parts of Charter Communications' cable systems. This included areas in Minnesota like Bemidji and International Falls. Starting in February 2009, Midcontinent Communications took over these areas. Other parts of Minnesota were sold to Comcast.
In June 2011, Midcontinent Communications grew even more. They bought 33,000 new customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin from another company called US Cable.
Midco used to offer a paging service starting in 1985. Paging was a way for people to send short messages to small devices called pagers. But in 2004, Midco sold its paging services to another company.
On January 12, 2016, the company officially changed its name to Midco. They started using the new slogan "Let's Go."
In October 2016, Midco expanded into Lawrence, Kansas. They bought the cable system there from Wide Open West.
Midco Sports TV
Midco has its own TV channel for sports called MidcoSN. It used to be called MC23. This channel shows college sports from leagues like the Summit League and the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They often focus on teams from South Dakota, South Dakota State University, North Dakota, and North Dakota State University.
MidcoSN also covers sports from the NCAA Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. This includes football, basketball, and volleyball games. Every team in this league is guaranteed to appear on the channel a certain number of times each season.
College Sports on MidcoSN
A big event for MidcoSN is covering the NSIC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments. These games happen every February and March in Sioux Falls. The channel broadcasts every game from the quarterfinals all the way to the championships. After that, they cover the Summit League Men's and Women's tournament quarterfinals and semifinals. However, they don't show the championship games for those tournaments because ESPN has those rights.
All MidcoSN's coverage of the Summit League and Missouri Valley Football Conference games is also shown on ESPN3.
High School Sports and More
Besides college events, MidcoSN also shows some high school sports in North and South Dakota. This includes important events like the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls.
MidcoSN and its extra channels, MidcoSN2 and MidcoSN3, are available to all Midco cable customers. Other cable companies in the region also offer these channels through special agreements.
MidcoSN has over 30 people who work full-time. These include people who appear on TV and those who work behind the scenes.
Midco Sports in Kansas
Because MidcoSN was so successful in the Dakotas, Midco started a similar channel in Kansas. It's called Midco Sports Kansas and is based in Lawrence. This channel broadcasts high school sports and college games in the northeastern Kansas area.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, a Minnesota Twins baseball game was shown on MidcoSN. This happened because another show was on Bally Sports North at the same time.
